MOVIE REVIEW

Real energy and passion drive a group of budding musicians as well as the documentary makers, whose fervor actually turns a bit preachy.

By Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Though some girls have been content to say they're with the band, more intrepid ones actually want to be in the band. It's the latter group that is the subject of "Girls Rock!," an energetic documentary that shows how they go about starting to make those dreams real.

Directed by Shane King and Arne Johnson, "Girls Rock!" is set at an event called Rock ’n’ Roll Camp for Girls that takes place every summer in a Portland, Ore., warehouse. During a week of workshops, girls who attend in effect go from zeros to heroes: They learn instruments, often for the first time, form bands, write rock songs and perform them in front of an audience of 750.

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When the camp director says, "It doesn't have to be polished," she is putting it mildly.

The best thing about "Girls Rock!" is the passion of the girls, ages 8 to 18. Delighted to be making their mark on an area that's often viewed as a male preserve, these young people have an infectious energy that lights up every room they're in.

It's also enlightening to hear the women who are counselors and who run the place talk about the very real way the camp serves as an empowering experience for girls whose initial tendency is to be more timid and apologetic than rock star arrogant.

Though "Girls Rock!" is nothing if not well meaning, it doesn't always feel like the best possible film on the subject. The four girls chosen as the focus of the documentary are all interesting, but they don't truly grab our hearts the way the boys and girls did in something like "Spellbound," which followed eight teens to the National Spelling Bee.

More of a problem is this film's tendency to turn periodically preachy. Inserted into the film at random moments are a series of what the press notes call "issue-driven animations." Created by visual artist Liz Canning, they push too hard in both style and content.

It's not that the statistics they pass on about girls and rock and girls and society aren't of interest, but putting them in our face, complete with sources, feels like an overly didactic reach for relevance that "Girls Rock!" doesn't need.

The reason for this earnest miscalculation might be because the film's two directors are men. It's clear they care passionately about their subject and the place of women in the world. It's too bad they didn't realize that bending this far backward to spread their message wasn't necessary.

kenneth.turan@latimes.com

"Girls Rock!" MPAA rating: Unrated. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes. Exclusively at the Nuart Theatre, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 281-8223.